mailing, explained – First Class Services Mail Management and Fulfillment

You may think you know what a letter is, or even what a flat mailer might be. We’ve all grown up with letters, and a flat mailer is anything that mails flat, not in an envelope, not folded. That would make sense, right? But that’s not how the USPS sees it. Instead, the Postal Service categorizes any mail piece as a “flat” or a “letter” by what size it is. There are only 4 main categories:

Parcel: This is what we think of as a package. Anything that you mail that isn’t really flat or that is bulky and 3-dimensional is considered a parcel. Parcels have their own postage rates.

Postcard: This is the cheapest way to send mail. A postcard is a single piece of paper or cardstock that is within a narrow size range. Postcards:

are rectangular in shape; and,
are at least 3½ inches tall but no more than 4¼ inches tall; and,
are at least 5 inches wide but no more than 6 inches wide; and,
are at least 0.007 inches thick but no more than 0.016 inches thick (this one you probably don’t have to worry about)
are not mailed in envelopes.

That’s not too difficult, right?

So now we come to the confusing ones.

Letter: a letter is anything that starts out at the minimum size for postcards (see above) and goes up to a maximum of 6⅛ inches tall and 11½ inches wide. Anything that is postcard-size but is in an envelope is considered a letter. Anything larger than the maximum size for a letter is considered a

Flat: This goes all the way up to a max size of 12 inches tall and 15 inches wide. Anything in between this size and the max size of a letter is considered a flat.

Confused yet? Below is an illustration that might help.

In practice, this is a relatively simple, non-arbitrary way to measure your mailpieces. But the names are very confusing. I would have gone with BigMail™️, LittleMail™️, and TinyMail™️. But that’s just me.

“Indicia” is a word that mailing companies use all the time, but it’s not a common word in other contexts. You might recognize a word that comes from the same root—indicate. An indicia replaces a stamp on professional mailing. It that “indicates” to the post office how a piece of mail is being sent and ensures that the right postage is being used. You may have seen it before. It looks like this:

A sample indicia

An indicia is better than using a stamp, but it takes a little more work and planning beforehand than stamps do.

What is the benefit of using an indicia?

Once it’s set up, an indicia will make your mailing projects much simpler and save you time and money. The major benefits are:

An indicia costs less in postage than an equivalent stamp
It guarantees that you have the necessary postage
It can be printed onto your mail piece directly, saving you the time and cost of adding stamps on after the fact

Who can use an indicia?

Anyone with a relatively large mailing project (with a mailing list of at least 200) can use an indicia. If you don’t do large mailings frequently, you can use a permit that First Class Services will set up for you. If, on the other hand, you work for an organization that sends out large mailings on a regular basis, you can register your organization directly with the USPS and receive a personalized indicia. Non-profit organizations must register with the USPS to take advantage of discounted postage rates.

What do I need to get started?

All you need to do to learn more about using an indicia for your project is to get in touch with us. We’ll fill you in on everything you’ll need, and can take care of most of the process for you.

In the meantime, if you’d like to prepare as much as possible, you will need a mailing list with at least 200 names on it. Postage rates will change depending on how many names are in your mailing list, how quickly you need to send your project out, and what kind of organization you’re working with. Also, every mailing list will need to be sorted to qualify for an indicia. But don’t worry—we take care of sorting the list and figuring out the best rates for your project. So just set up a clean, organized list in whatever order you’d like, and we’ll take it from there.

If you haven’t printed your mailing project yet, talk with us as well about adding the indicia directly to the artwork before it’s printed. This will save you the extra cost of having to run everything through a printing press twice.

Need help with a mailing project? Call us anytime at (540) 432-0082

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